COVID-19 (Coronavirus) Update: 19 May

I’m pleased to say we have now spoken with just under 1,000 event teams and ambassadors from all 22 parkrun countries, and that project has now formally concluded.

As always however, should event teams and volunteers wish to speak with us that opportunity remains available and I’d urge them to get in touch if that is the case. We are now taking time to review our notes from those conversations and will be reporting back in due course.

It also feels like we’re entering a new phase of consideration with regard to restarting parkrun, at least in some parts of the world. Restrictions are beginning to ease in many countries in which we operate, and every day the news shows society taking small steps toward reopening. Each update to a country’s future plans are scrutinised, and although none have yet presented clear parkrun-friendly guidelines many are moving closer to that point.

At this moment in time, it feels like we’ve been without parkrun forever and it’s understandable that many of us will feel a sense of emotional fatigue, or even hopelessness, from time to time. However, I would like to reassure you that we are moving forward, we are focused on reopening as soon as appropriate, and we do believe that that time will come. Until then, we continue to ask parkrun communities around the world not to arrange gatherings at their local venues, and thank them all for being so brilliant to date.

Finally, we recently spoke to Laura Penhaul, who was part of the first-ever all-female crew to row across the Pacific, a feat that was documented in the brilliant film Losing Sight of Shore.

You can watch our conversation with her over on the parkrun YouTube channel and, like me, I hope you can draw many parallels with what we’re all going through right now.

We may ourselves have lost sight of the shore for the moment, but we are moving forward and will see it again.

Tom Williams

Chief Operating Officer

parkrun Global

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